Benevento occupies the site of the ancient
Beneventum (Greek: Βενεβεντός, Steph. B. or Βενεουεντόν, Strab., Ptol.), originally Maleventum
or still earlier Malowent and Maloenton (Greek: Μαλόεντον or Μαλεβεντός and earlier Μαλοϝεντ). The "-vent" portion of the name
probably refers to a market-place and is a common element in
ancient place names.[1] The
Romans theorized that it meant "the site of bad events", from
Mal(um) + eventum. In the imperial period it was supposed to have
been founded by Diomedes
after the Trojan
War.

History

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Benevento
in antiquity

Benevento, as Maleventum, one of the chief cities of Samnium, and at a later period
one of the most important cities of southern Italy, was situated on
the Via
Appia at a distance of 32 miles east from Capua; and on the banks of the river Calor
(modern Calore). There is some discrepancy as to the people to
which it belonged at contact: Pliny expressly assigns it to the Hirpini; but Livy certainly seems to consider it as belonging
to the Samnites proper, as distinguished from the
Hirpini; and Ptolemy adopts
the same view.[2] All
writers concur in representing it as a very ancient city; Solinus and
Stephanus of Byzantium ascribe
its foundation to Diomedes; a legend which appears to have been
adopted by the inhabitants, who, in the time of Procopius, pretended to
exhibit the tusks of the Calydonian boar in
proof of their descent.[3]Festus, on the contrary (s.
v. Ausoniam), related that it was founded by Auson, a son of Ulysses and Circe; a tradition which indicates that it was an
ancient Ausonian city, previous to its conquest by
the Samnites. But it first appears in history as a Samnite
city;[4] and
must have already been a place of strength, so that the Romans did not
venture to attack it during their first two wars with the Samnites.
It appears, however, to have fallen into their hands during the Third Samnite War, though the exact
occasion is unknown. It was certainly in the power of the Romans in
274 BC, when Pyrrhus was defeated in a great battle, fought in
its immediate neighborhood, by the consul Curius Dentatus.[5] Six
years later (268 BC) they sought farther to secure its possession
by establishing there a Roman colony with Latin rights.[6] It was
at this time that it first assumed the name of Beneventum, having
previously been called Maleventum, a name which the Romans regarded
as of evil augury, and changed into one of a more fortunate
signification.[7] It is
probable that the Oscan or Samnite name was
Maloeis, or Malieis, from whence
the form Maleventum would be derived, like Agrigentum from Acragas
(modern Agrigento),
Selinuntium from Selinus (the ruins of which are at modern Selinunte), etc.[8]

View of the Roman Theatre of Benevento.

As a Roman colony Beneventum seems to have quickly become a
flourishing place; and in the Second Punic War was repeatedly
occupied by Roman generals as a post of importance, on account of
its proximity to Campania,
and its strength as a fortress. In its immediate neighborhood were
fought two of the most decisive actions of the war: the Battle of Beneventum,
(214 BC), in which the Carthaginian general Hanno was defeated by Tiberius
Gracchus; the other in 212 BC, when the camp of Hanno, in which
he had accumulated a vast quantity of corn and other stores, was
stormed and taken by the Roman consul Quintus Fulvius Flaccus.[9] And
though its territory was more than once laid waste by the
Carthaginians, it was still one of the eighteen Latin colonies
which in 209 BCE were at once able and willing to furnish the
required quota of men and money for continuing the war.[10] It is
singular that no mention of it occurs during the Social War; but it seems to have
escaped from the calamities which at that time befel so many cities
of Samnium, and towards the close of the Roman Republic is spoken of as one of
the most opulent and flourishing cities of Italy.[11] Under
the Second
Triumvirate its territory was portioned out by the Triumvirs to
their veterans, and subsequently a fresh colony was established
there by Augustus, who
greatly enlarged its domain by the addition of the territory of Caudium (modern Montesarchio). A
third colony was settled there by Nero, at which time it assumed the title of
Concordia; hence we find it bearing, in inscriptions of
the reign of Septimius Severus, the titles
Colonia Julia Augusta Concordia Felix
Beneventum.[12] Its
importance and flourishing condition under the Roman Empire is
sufficiently attested by existing remains and inscriptions; it was
at that period unquestionably the chief city of the Hirpini, and
probably, next to Capua, the most populous and considerable city of
southern Italy. For this prosperity it was doubtless indebted in
part to its position on the Via Appia, just at the junction of the
two principal arms or branches of that great road, the one called
afterwards the Via
Trajana, leading from thence by Equus Tuticus into Apulia; the other by Aeculanum to
Venusia (modern Venosa) and
Tarentum (modern Taranto).[13] Its
wealth is also evidenced by the quantity of coins minted by
Beneventum. Horace famously
notes Beneventum on his journey from Rome to Brundusium (modern Brindisi).[14] It
was indebted to the same circumstance for the honor of repeated
visits from the emperors of Rome, among which those of Nero, Trajan, and Septimus Severus, are
particularly recorded.[15]

It was probably for the same reason that the triumphal arch,
the Arch of Trajan, was erected there by the
senate and people of Rome and constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus in 114.
The Arch of Trajan is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in
the Campania. It repeats the formula of the Arch of Titus in
the Roman Forum,
with reliefs of Trajan's life
and exploits of his reign. Some of the sculptures are in the British Museum.
Successive emperors seem to have bestowed on the city accessions of
territory, and erected, or at least given name to, various public
buildings. For administrative purposes it was first included,
together with the rest of the Hirpini, in the second region of
Augustus, but was afterwards annexed to Campania and placed under
the control of the consular of that province. Its inhabitants were
included in the Stellatine tribe.[16]
Beneventum retained its importance down to the close of the Empire,
and though during the Gothic wars it was taken by Totila, and its walls razed to the ground, they
were restored, as well as its public buildings, shortly after; and
P. Diaconus speaks of it as a very wealthy city, and the capital of
all the surrounding provinces.[17]

Beneventum indeed seems to have been a place of much literary
cultivation; it was the birth-place of Orbilius the grammarian,
who long continued to teach in his native city before he removed to
Rome, and was honored with a statue by his fellow-townsmen; while
existing inscriptions record similar honors paid to another
grammarian, Rutilius Aelianus, as well as to orators and poets,
apparently only of local celebrity.[18]

The territory of Beneventum under the Roman Empire was of very
considerable extent. Towards the west it included that of Caudium,
with the exception of the town itself; to the north it extended as
far as the river Tamarus (modern Tammaro), including the village of Pago Veiano, which, as
we learn from an inscription, was anciently called Pagus Veianus;
on the northeast it comprised the town of Equus Tuticus (modern Sant'Eleuterio, near Castel Franco), and on
the east and south bordered on the territories of Aeculanum and Abellinum. An inscription has preserved to
us the names of several of the pagi or villages dependent upon
Beneventum, but their sites cannot be identified.[19]

The city's most ancient coins bear the legend "Malies" or
"Maliesa", which have been supposed to belong to the Samnite, or
pre-Samnite, Maleventum. Coins with the legend "BENVENTOD" (an old
Latin – or Samnite – form for
Beneventor-um), must have been struck after it became a Latin
colony.[20]

Duchy of
Benevento

Not long after it had been sacked by Totila and its walls razed (545), Benevento
became the seat of a powerful Lombardduchy. The circumstances of the creation of duchy of
Benevento are disputed. According to some scholars, Lombards
were present in southern Italy well before the complete conquest of
the Po Valley: the duchy
would have been founded in 576 by some soldiers led by a Zotto, autonomously from the
Lombard king.

In the following decades, Benevento conquered some territories
to the Roman-Byzantine duchy, but the main enemies was now the
northern Lombard reign itself. King Liutprand
intervened in several times imposing a candidate of his own to the
duchy's succession; his successor Ratchis declared the duchies of Spoleto and
Benevento foreign countries where it was forbidden to travel
without a royal permission.

With the collapse of the Lombard kingdom in 773, Duke Arechis II was elevated to
Prince under the new empire of the Franks, in compensation for having some of his
territory transferred back to the Papal States. Benevento was acclaimed by a
chronicler as a "second Pavia"— Ticinum geminum— after the
Lombard capital was lost. The unit of this principality was
short-lived: in 851, Salerno
broke off under Siconulf and, by the end of that century,
Capua was independent as well.
Benevento was ruled again by Byzantines between 891-895.

The so-called Langobardia
minor was unified for the last time by Duke Pandolfo Testa di Ferro, who expanded his
extensive control in the Mezzogiorno from his base in Benevento and
Capua. Before his death (March
981), he had gained from Emperor Otto I the title of Duke of
Spoleto also. However, both Benevento and Salerno rebelled to his
son and heir, Pandulf II.

The first decades of the 11th century saw two more
German-descended rulers to southern Italy: Henry II, conquered in
1022 both Capua and Benevento, but returned after the failed siege
of Troia. Similar
results obtained Conrad II in 1038. In
these years the three states (Benevento, Capua, and Salerno) were
often engaged in local wars and disputes that favoured the rise of
the Normans from mercenaries
to ruler of the whole southern Italy. The greatest of them was Robert
Guiscard, who captured Benevento in 1053 after the Emperor Henry III had first authorised its
conquest in 1047 when Pandulf III and Landulf VI shut the gates to
him. These princes were later expelled from the city and then
recalled after the pope failed to defend it from Guiscard. The city
fell to Normans in 1077. It was a papal city until after 1081.

Papal
Benevento

Benevento passed to the Papacy peacefully when the emperor Henry III ceded it to Leo IX, in
exchange for the Bishopric of
Bamberg (1053). Landulf II, Archbishop of Benevento,
promoted reform, but also allied with the Normans. He was deposed
for two years. Benevento was the cornerstone of the Papacy's
temporal powers in southern Italy. The Papacy ruled it by appointed
rectors, seated in a magnificent palace, and the principality
continued to be a papal possession until 1806, when Napoleon
granted it to his minister Talleyrand with the title of Sovereign
Prince. Talleyrand was never to settle down and actually rule his
new principality; in 1815 Benevento was returned to the papacy. It
was united to Italy in 1860.

Main
sights

Ancient
remains

Arch of Trajan

The importance of Benevento in classical times is vouched for by
the many remains of antiquity which it possesses, of which
the most famous is the triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan by the senate and people of
Rome in 114, with important
reliefs relating to its history. Enclosed in the walls, this
construction marked the entrance in Benevento of the Via Traiana, the road
built by the Spanish emperor to shorten the path from Rome to Brindisi. The reliefs show
the civil and military deeds of Trajan.

There are other considerable remains from ancient era:

The well-preserved ancient theatre, next to the Cathedral and the
Port'Arsas. This grandiose building was erected by Hadrian, and later expanded by
Caracalla. It had a
diameter of 90 meters and could house up to 10,000 spectators. It
is currently used for theatre, dance, and opera performances.

A large cryptoporticus 60 m long, known as the
ruins of Santi Quaranta, and probably an emporium. According to
Meomartini, the portion preserved is only a fraction of the whole,
which once measured 520 m in length).

A brick arch called Arco del Sacramento.

The Ponte Leproso, a bridge on the Via Appia over the
Sabato river, below the city center.

The Bue Apis, popularly known as A ufara
("buffalo"). It is a basement in the shape of an ox or bull coming
from the Temple of Isis.

Many inscriptions and ancient fragments may be seen built into
the old houses. In 1903 the foundations of the Temple of Isis were
discovered close to the Arch of Trajan, and many fragments of fine
sculptures in both the Egyptian and the Greco-Roman style belonging
to it were found. They had apparently been used as the foundation
of a portion of the city wall, reconstructed in 663 under the
fear of an attack by the Byzantine emperorConstans II, the
temple having been destroyed by order of the bishop, St
Barbatus, to provide the necessary material (A. Meomartini, 0.
Marucchi and L. Savignoni in Notizie degli Scavi, 1904,
107 sqq.).

The church of Santa Sofia with its bell tower and the Chiaromonte
fountain.

Santa
Sofia

The church of Santa Sofia is a circular Lombard edifice
dating to c. 760, now modernized, of small proportions: it can be
enclosed within a circle of 23.5 m of diameter. It is one of the
most important examples of European architecture of the High Middle
Ages. The plant was very original for the times: it consists of a
central hexagon with, at each vertex, columns taken from the temple
of Isis; these are connected by
arches which support the cupola. The inner hexagon is in turn
enclosed in a decagonal ring with eight white limestone pilasters
and two columns next to the entrance. The church has a fine cloister of the 12th century,
constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings. The church
interior was once totally frescoed by Byzantine artists: fragments of these
paintings, portraying the Histories of Christ, can be
still seen in the two side apses.

Santa Sofia was almost destroyed by the earthquake of 1688, and
rebuilt in Baroque forms by commission of the
then cardinal Orsini of Benevento (later Pope Benedict
XIII). The original forms were hidden, and were recovered only
after the discussed restoration of 1951.

The cloister give access to the Samnium Museum, with notable
sections of remains from Ancient age and Middle Ages. These include
an obelisk, one of the two that once decorated the Temple of Isis.
The other one can be still seen in the city, in the central Piazza
Papiniano.

The Cathedral

Rocca dei Rettori.

The
Cathedral

The Cathedral of
Santa Maria Assunta, with its fine arcaded façade and
incomplete square campanile (begun in 1279 by the archbishop
Romano Capodiferro) dates from the 9th century. It was rebuilt in
1114. The façade was inspired by the Pisan Gothic style. Its bronze
doors, adorned with bas-reliefs, are notable example of Romanesque art
which may belong to the beginning of the 13th century. The interior
is in the form of a basilica, the double aisles carried on ancient
columns. There are ambones resting on columns supported by lions,
and decorated with reliefs and coloured marble mosaic, and a
candelabrum of 1311. A marble statue of the apostle San Bartolomeo,
by Nicola da Monteforte, is also from the 14th century. The
cathedral also contains a statue of St. Giuseppe Moscati, a native of the
area.

Rocca dei
Rettori

The castle of Benevento, best known as Rocca dei
Rettori or Rocca di Manfredi, stands at the highest
point of the town, commanding the valley of the rivers Sabato and
Calore, and the two main ancient roads Via Appia and Via Traiana.
The site had been already used by the Samnites, who had constructed
here a set of defensive terraces, and the Romans, with a thermal
plant (Castellum aquae), whose remains can be still seen
in the castle garden. The Benedictines had a
monastery there. It received the current name in the Middle Ages,
when it became the seat of the Papal governors, the
Rettori.

The castle is in fact made by two distinct edifices: the
Torrione ("Big Tower"), which was built by the Lombards starting
from 871, and the Palazzo dei Governatori, built by the Popes from
1320.

Other
sights

Sant'Ilario, not far from the Arch of Traian along the
first trait of the Via Traiana, is a very ancient, small building
dating from the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th
century.

Economy

The economy of Benvento area is traditionally agricultural. Main
products include vine, olives and tobacco. The main industry is that of food
processing (sweets and pasta), although textile, mechanics and
construction companies are present.

Transportation

Benvento is connected to Naples through the modern SS7 Appia state road, and
then local roads starting from Arienzo. It is 17 km from the Naples-Bari
A16 motorway. The SS372 Telesina state road allows reaching the A1
Naples-Rome, leading to the latter in less than three hours.

Benevento has a station on the Caserta-Foggia railway, with fast connections from Rome
to Avellino, Bari and Lecce. Trains to Campobasso have been mostly replaced by bus
service. The connection to Naples is ensured by three stations on
the MetroCampania NordEst inter-urban metro line.